Delaplane Cellars

It's been a long time since we have been to a winery. We try to skip them in September and October when our friends are working so hard to bring in the harvest and get it crushed. But as things start winding down--and this year Hurricane Joaquin brought things to an early close by dumping inches and inches of rain on us over many days forcing everyone to pick early--we start visiting again as we do frequently during the winter months.

We needed to pick up some wine and I needed to talk to Betsy about a couple of catering jobs coming up in the next couple of weeks, so after our morning coffee, we got dressed and made the quick and pretty drive to Delaplane.

Annie at Delaplane

Lunch

Williams Gap 2013

It was too cool and windy to sit outside, though some poor fools were trying it, so we camped out inside the tasting room and enjoyed a rare bit of grown up time talking about this and that and nothing at all. Ultimately, Jim came up from the cellar, complaining of being sore from all the punchdowns, and sat with us for a half an hour or so while we shot the breeze. We asked him why some of the Cabernet Sauvignon is still hanging. "Infected with botrytis," he replied. "Last year we brought in 9 tons, this year 3." 2015 was such a promising year (in fact, the whites are going to be really great) up until the hurricane struck.